Offshore wind is seeing the same dramatic cost reductionsas solar and onshore wind. Though still more expensive, it’s heading towards $60/MWh parity with them across Europe. The U.S., China and Taiwan are also experiencing impressive drops. It’s why global capacity nearly doubled in three years from 12GW in December 2015 to 23GW by the end of 2018. IEEFA’s briefing note “Offshore Wind Ready to Be Key Part of Energy Mix Globally – Top European Developers to Drive Down Costs in Asia Pacific” explains the main drivers are improvements in turbine technology, low externalities, innovative financing models, and the scale and appetite for international investment. China is now building huge internal capacity in offshore wind manufacturing and technology. That leads IEEFA to predict China, along with the European firms that now dominate the global market – Ørsted of Denmark, RWE of Germany, Vattenfall of Sweden, SSE and Equinor of the UK, and Iberdrola of Spain –should soon be chasing customers across Asia, adding to their clean energy mix.
Global offshore wind power capacity nearly doubled in the last three years. Joining solar and onshore wind, offshore wind is gaining pace as the third go-to investment in the race to replace emissions-heavy fossil fuel imports with cheap sustainable domestic renewables around the world.
A new IEEFA briefing note released last week, Offshore Wind Ready to Be Key Part of Energy Mix Globally – Top European Developers to Drive Down Costs in Asia Pacific, highlights that offshore wind shares the same advantages that solar and onshore wind carry.
